The Yoga Mat That Keeps Me Stable, No Matter How Sweaty I Get

Yoga is good for you, but as with any movement practice, form is key to preventing injuries. And a slippery mat can lead you to overwork or torque certain muscle groups over the ones you want to target, or force you into misalignment.

The Harmony Mat got a 10 out of 10 for hot yoga settings during testing. It has a unique, textured natural-rubber surface that we found maintains its grip better than other mats. This, combined with its firm cushion — not the sinking squish of foam mats — makes for a stable and secure base. With this mat, I don’t have to weirdly clench to maintain balance or unpeel myself from the surface to move into a new asana. And I feel my confidence grow with exercises like mountain climbers and burpees, when I really need to trust my contact with the floor (and when the sweat really starts to bead).

And yoga teachers agree. “They are the only mats we have found where no one slips in down dog,” said Krissy Jones, owner of Sky Ting yoga studio (where, full disclosure, I was enrolled in teacher training, and where I first discovered this mat).

One of my least favorite things about so-called sticky mats is their pilling with wear. Sometimes, I’d leave a class with bits of foam adhered to my sweaty skin. This isn’t the case with the durable natural rubber on the Harmony Mat. In fact, one of the guide’s testers tried to scratch and chip bits of the Jade mat away with their nails to no avail.

Jones, whose mats go through heavy use during packed classes, said that while she has tried using other mats over the years, the “durability, longevity, and functionality of the Jade Harmony mat is the best for our studio.”

I flip my mat over after roughly twelve months of daily use (some days that’s just 15 minutes, to be fair) for the best grip and integrity, and I replace the mat with a new one after two to three years, saving the old one for guests or camping. But I could probably go for longer (and some Wirecutter staffers have); the major difference with wear is that the mat is a bit more stretchy and has slightly less grip where my feet and hands touch in downward dog.

The Harmony Mat’s durability doesn’t just give my investment more mileage, it’s also more environmentally sustainable. The longer I can get use out of my mat, the lower its impact per use — and the fewer mats that I’ll end up disposing in my lifetime. (Though yoga mats are notoriously hard to recycle, JadeYoga has some suggestions for how to put old mats to work.)

At about $90, the Harmony Mat falls into the category of investment mats. But it’s not a bad deal if you break it down over the years. If, like me, you use it every day for two years, that comes to just 12¢ per use.

When new, this mat has a pronounced rubber smell, like a tire. The smell never fully dissipates, but it gets much weaker with time, and leaving the new mat unrolled for a day, out of the sun, helps a lot. To me, the rubber smell is far preferable to the PVC smell of a foam mat, but smell is highly subjective.

The 68-inch mat weighs just shy of 5 pounds. If you’re buying this mat specifically to tote back and forth to class on, say, public transit, you may find that weight burdensome. But our testers find that it rolls up compactly and stays rolled, unlike some mats that are maddeningly prone to unfurling.

This mat contains latex, so it’s not suitable if you have a latex allergy.

No mat is utterly slip-free, and the Harmony Mat, although the best I’ve tried, is not magic. If you’re sweating actual buckets, you may still want a towel to wipe down the mat for the surest tread. Regular cleaning with a damp cloth can also help maintain the mat’s grip. JadeYoga recommends wiping down the mat with a damp cloth once a week, and after each use if your practice is vigorous or notably sweaty. (I confess to not doing this.)

We recommend storing your mat rolled up rather than leaving it out, to keep it dust- and slip-free. I roll mine up after each use and unroll it again the next morning, even if it’s just for a few moments. Years ago, back at Sky Ting, a mentor started her classes by saying the hardest part was already over: We’d shown up. Some days I show up in child’s pose, other days ready and raring for full wheel. Whatever it is, my mat has my back.

This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Catherine Kast.